"Speak up for yourself - we want to know what you have to say." From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows that this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether. Only...

A young woman races to save her kidnapped husband, a used bookstore owner deals with the loss of a son on an Afghan battlefield, a mother travels to Kabul to tend to her wounded son, and two Afghans reveal the complexity of their culture.

In the summer of 1957, Frances and Bernard meet at an artists' colony. She finds him faintly ridiculous, but talented. He sees her as aloof, but intriguing. Afterward, he writes her a letter. Soon they are immersed in the kind of fast, deep friendship that can take over -- and change the course of -- lives. They find their way to New York and, for a few whirling years, each other. Can we love another person so completely that we lose ourselves?

"The hauntingly beautiful epistolary novel from 'a glowing light of modern Italian literature' (New York Times Book Review). At the heart of Happiness As Such is an absence, an abyss that draws everyone nearer to its edge, created by the departure of a family's wayward only son, Michele, who has fled from Italy to England to escape the dangers and threats of his radical political ties. This novel is part epistolary: his mother writes letters to him,...

"Brothers Victor and Isaac aren't sure how long they'll make it in their foster homes. Isaac is comfortable around his foster parents, but afraid they'll give him up. Victor just landed a in new, crowded home with a lot of rules, and is accused of stealing. The brothers make a secret plan to run away from their foster parents and make a home of their own. Will their plan work, or will they lose everything trying?"--Page 4 of cover.

'Hame, n. Scottish form of 'home': a valued place regarded as a refuge or place of origin.' In the wake of the breakdown of her relationship, Mhairi McPhail dismantles her life in New York and moves with her 9-year-old daughter, Agnes, to the remote Scottish island of Fascaray. Mhairi has been commissioned to write a biography of the late Bard of Fascaray, Grigor McWatt, a cantankerous poet with an international reputation. But who was Grigor McWatt?...

"The Fairway Players, an amateur theater group, are in the middle of rehearsals for their production of Arthur Miller's All My Sons when tragedy strikes the family of director Martin Hayward and his wife, Helen. Their young granddaughter is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and faces an experimental treatment that costs a tremendous sum, so their fellow castmates rally to raise the money to give her a chance at survival. But not everybody is convinced...

After a rough year at NYU, aspiring writer Lora Ricci is thrilled to land a summer internship at ELLE magazine where she meets Cat Wolff, contributing editor and enigmatic daughter of a clean-energy mogul. Cat takes Lora under her wing, soliciting her help with side projects and encouraging her writing. As a friendship emerges between the two women, Lora opens up to Cat about her desperate struggles and lost scholarship. Cat's solution: Drop out of...